yoshitomo nara
i forgot their names and often can’t remember their faces but remember their voices well
curated by pedro alonzo
yoshitomo nara, no war, 2019. acrylic on wood. courtesy of the artist and pace gallery.
about the exhibition
Dallas Contemporary’s career survey of Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara brings together a large selection of paintings, drawings and sculptures from 2006 to the present, many of which are being exhibited for the first time.
Since rising to global prominence in the 1990s, Nara has used his signature style to portray subjects in complex and ambiguous emotional states, ranging from rebellion to loneliness and quiet contemplation. Inspired by music, current events, his childhood memories, among other subjects, his internationally celebrated works critically fuse contemporary issues with longstanding artistic traditions from East Asia and Europe. Through his oeuvre, Nara offers an enduring meditation on the individual’s freedom of imagination and boundless emotive capacities.
The survey explores how Nara’s art conjures a realm rich in feeling while referencing the artist’s autobiography as well as broader cultural issues. In his newest works exhibited at Dallas Contemporary, Nara adopts a markedly introspective attitude. He uses his creative process to explore and express his place in today’s world, while channeling his views on a broad range of urgent topics, such as nuclear disarmament, environmental activism, and the tragic ramifications of Japan’s 2011 earthquake.
curatorial statement
Yoshitomo Nara is one of the most beloved artists in the world. Since the late 1990’s, he has developed a unique body of work with a universal resonance. Anyone who encounters Nara’s work is confronted with images that evoke deep human emotion in the form of the archetypal characters the artist has engendered and shared with the world through diverse media. The exhibition I Forgot Their Names and Often Can’t Remember Their Faces but Remember Their Voices Well, brings together rarely seen bodies of work such as large scale works on wood that the artist refers to as “billboard paintings”, ambitious works on cardboard, new drawings, new bronze sculptures and the gigantic, yet adorable, puppy. The selection of work highlights raw, informal and graphic aspects of Nara’s practice. He describes the images on used surfaces such as cardboard, wood or envelopes, as easily emerging because of the “lived” quality of the material. Meanwhile, the painting on canvas serves as a counterpoint, reminding the viewer of the challenge the artist faces when confronting a pure white canvas.
Furthermore, the exhibition explores Nara’s ability to create imagery that the public can relate to and the corresponding artistic strategies he employs to make compelling artworks through what appears to be simple forms of portraiture. We see that Nara employs the graphic language of popular culture, including animation techniques similar to those used by Walt Disney or pre-Hispanic imagery such as the Aztecs or Mayans — enlarged heads and short bodies — to most effectively convey a range of human emotions. Nara’s solitary childlike figures evoke empathy and a natural desire to nurture and protect. It is easy for the viewer to engage with Nara’s work, one can pick a painting or drawing that illustrates how the day is going or how one feels at that moment. Recent research in esthetics and neuroscience reveal the phenomenon of “embodied simulation”, the subconscious identification and mirrored feelings of others observed in artworks. Nara’s imagery triggers an empathetic response, allowing for a direct experiential understanding of his inner world. In doing so Nara’s practice confirms his mastery of conveying human emotion, reminding us that experiencing art is not only about thinking but about feeling as well.
pedro alonzo interviews yoshitomo nara for art digest 00.0
PA: Your mastery of conveying human emotion is astounding. How do you portray such profound human sentiment in your work?
YN: I basically try to pour out my own emotions from my heart and embed them into my paintings and drawings. I’m not thinking about the viewer. I have a conversation with my own feelings, moment by moment, and the result of that is what gets embedded into my work. I don’t know if I’m really able to portray the depth of human emotion, but I am always trying to paint true to my own feelings. When I was young, I didn’t have much life experience and was juvenile, unable to see the bigger picture. So a lot of my work back then shows my feelings, just directly exposed. But as I have gotten older, I’ve become able to depict a much larger view of emotions, and create as if I am slowly walking.
in conversation: yoshitomo nara + pedro alonzo
a conversation between artist yoshitomo nara + exhibition curator pedro alonzo on the occasion of nara’s career survey, i forgot their names and often can’t remember their faces but remember their voices well. the conversation delves into the artist practice, process, the making of new works for this exhibition, as well as explore some of the of urgent topics addressed in the exhibition.
Photo: Ryoichi Kawajiri, © Yoshitomo Nara, Courtesy of the artist, Blum & Poe, and Pace Gallery.
about the artist
Yoshitomo Nara is a Japanese artist born in 1959, who became a central figure of Japan’s avant-garde art scene and the international contemporary art world throughout the 1990s and 2000s. He has garnered much critical acclaim, as well as a global following, for his complex and moving portrayals of big-headed, preternatural children in an array of moods and ambiguous poses. His instantly recognizable style—which crystallized circa 1993, when he completed his studies at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf—is expressed in many other mediums, including sculpture, photography, ceramics, installation, and drawing. His celebrated aesthetic critically collapses binaries—high art and popular culture, past and present, as well as East and West—by drawing from a wide range of sources, including ukiyo-e prints of the Edo period, Buddhist altars, global consumerism, childhood memories, and music, ranging from folk and rock to punk. Never made by assistants, Nara’s art bears a carefully handcrafted facture and is deeply personal in nature—qualities at the service of the artist’s intention to engage his viewers in an emotionally charged and introspective experience.
Nara has had solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, IL; the Asia Society Museumin New York, NY; the Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa; Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, CA, among many other institutions. Naracurrently lives and works in Japan and is represented by Pace Gallery in New York and by Blum & Poe inLos Angeles.
exhibition support
Yoshitomo Nara’s survey is curated by Adjunct Curator Pedro Alonzo. This exhibition is made possible thanks to the generous support of Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Pace Gallery, the Japan Foundation, Cindy + Howard Rachofsky and Lisa + John Runyon.
Lead support for Dallas Contemporary has been provided by Ewing Properties Texas, with major programming support provided by Mark Giambrone. 2021 learning programs are supported by Sue Bancroft and Paula + Jim Crown. We gratefully acknowledge PaperCity Magazine as our media partner.